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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Contemplating the silent "P"....

Some wonderful knitters from the Testing Pool on Ravelry have been busily helping me test a few new toy patterns. One such critter is "Ptolemy the "eddy". He is scheduled to be published by (hopefully) August 5th. The pattern includes a free copy of my stuffing tutorial as well as a LOT of photographs for all of you visual learners, (of which I am certainly ONE).

This time, the testing group & I are testing right in the open, since the pattern will be self-published anyway. It's so much easier this way as we can openly chat without sending group emails & such. True there won't be the drama of a big reveal but "what the hey".

This current design is one that I had been thinking about for a long time. I tried to design a toy that had less seaming thus reducing the "fiddliness factor" and I also wanted to improve my stuffing techniques. Firm stuffing is so much better for a stuffed toy & yet it can really stretch all of that wonderful shaping to where it is almost non-existent, in some cases.

Ptolemy is a creature of unknown origins, (is he a bear? a dog? who knows?), When I look at him I see the basis on which to build many different kinds of critters, with the addition of differently shaped ears, a tail or what-have-you. Or leave them off, add some hair, eyes & a mouth and you have a dolly.

We are also testing Ptolemy's sidekick & co-conspirator, "Copurrnicus", a similarly shaped cat with a big I.Q. Rounding out the trio of big-footed, "science nerds" is a bunny who is not even at the testing phase yet.

In addition, I have a HUGE group testing a booklet of (4) Christmas designs that is also planned for publication some time in August. These are all crocheted & are super easy & super fast. More about them later.